Global patterns of commodity-driven deforestation and associated carbon emissions.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Climate Science
• Agricultural Science

Background:

• Agriculture-driven deforestation challenges climate and biodiversity targets.
• Existing datasets lack comprehensiveness for linking deforestation to food production, hindering conservation efforts.
• Effective forest conservation and climate change mitigation require detailed deforestation attribution.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and apply a deforestation attribution framework (DeDuCE) for detailed quantification of deforestation linked to agricultural and forestry commodities.
• To provide annual deforestation-carbon footprints for numerous country-commodity combinations.
• To identify commodities driving deforestation and inform conservation strategies.

Main Methods:

• Integration of comprehensive spatial and statistical datasets.
• Development of the deforestation attribution framework (DeDuCE).
• Annual reporting of country-commodity deforestation-carbon footprints from 2001-2022.

Main Results:

• DeDuCE quantified 9,332 unique country-commodity deforestation-carbon footprints across 179 countries and 184 commodities.
• Global monitoring has largely overlooked staple crops like rice, maize, and cassava.
• Cattle meat, oil palm, rubber, soya, cocoa, and coffee are primary focus areas, but staple crops also significantly contribute to deforestation and carbon emissions.

Conclusions:

• Balancing food security with forest and climate conservation requires greater attention to staple crops.
• Enhanced monitoring and conservation strategies are needed for commodities like rice, maize, and cassava.
• The DeDuCE framework offers a detailed approach to understanding and mitigating deforestation impacts from commodity production.